Intel's Ivy Bridge processors have gained a reputation of running far hotter than the previous-generation, but when you're an extreme overclocker equipped with LN2, that might not matter so much. GIGABYTE's in-house OCing addict hicookie just proved this with his latest world record; a staggering 7.032GHz overclock on a Core i7-3770K, achieved using a GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H.

Yes, using cherry picked components, and who knows what else. Point is records are just that records of the BEST run using the best chip they can get. Anyways, were all cores on? And ffs? a whole tray of 3770s, isn't that like 100 chips?

A tray generally holds 12-24 CPUs, depending on their size. I am not positive he has a tray full of them, but he definitely has a handful. Professional overclockers like this are never without samples to get their hands on, and given it's an ES in the screenshot, these weren't purchased off-the-shelf.

It IS unfortunate that even those end-users who have LN2 don't have these cherry parts, but it is what it is, I guess.

yea typically it isn't repeatable till another set of cherry chips are chosen and clocked. Your average person wont get a cherry chip, more than likely EVER. They may get a good one sure but cherry I doubt it.

Honestly, if you're an OC'er who is dedicated enough to have LN2 setups, odds are you have access to ES samples anyway.

Both Intel and AMD have been known (and I can attest to this personally, having headed up Bit-tech's modding section for years) to be VERY supportive of the TRUE OC and modding groups. I never had a problem getting very high-quality parts for those crowds if I could show a sufficient history of performance.

I know ES chips seem like a very 'cloaked in secrecy' thing that only a handful of sites and people get their hands on - in truth, that's quite accurate. But there are a lot more of them made than actually find their way into the hands of press et al, and the companies hold those for "marketing" budgets that would make sensible use out of them while still respecting the rules of what an ES chip is about (no resale, return to manufacturer at end of life, etc).

One thing is for sure - In four years of running Bit's modding/OC stuff, I have NEVER gone to Intel OR AMD with a proposal and left empty handed. Both companies are extremely friendly to the professional modders and OCers if they're approached with a good project and with the backing of a reputable source.

Odds are the board is as cherry-picked as the chip, but so what? I have two GB ES boards and one Asus that are now collecting dust - but when I was running Bit's watercooling testbench, this was a "must have" and the companies wanted to make sure that I could test the cooling the best without being limited by hardware.

I just wanted to put that out there - we need to remember that hicookie is a professional OCer who has won quite a few competitions and spends loads on his cooling rigs (or at least Gigabyte does!). It is not unusual for someone who works in that capacity to be provided ES samples, and it shouldn't be looked down on. Your "average end user" would never know how to safely administrate a LN2 cooling setup in the first place, and would likely not have the skill to max out an OC anywhere near what is capable with the hardware they HAVE (I know for a fact that I can't, and I'm certainly not new to the process)...so this is nothing to do with "wow that chip is so awesome," and everything to do with "under the absolute right conditions - perfect chip, perfect board, perfect ram, perfect cooling...we can get to HERE..."

I could be way off here, but I wouldn't imagine that ES parts, or "cherry picked" parts, are that special. It's not as though Intel or AMD run a special production with a tweaked recipe. These are the same chips that just happened to go through some internal OCers hands to make sure that it was top-rate. Chances are good that off-the-shelf parts could be super-overclocked as well. But we have to keep something in mind - pretty much the only people that truly cherry-picked parts matter to are LN2 users. Regular users are rarely going to be able to push the chip to a point where a cherry-picked part would have helped them gain a higher clock.

Of course there are exceptions, but I still believe that an off-the-shelf part COULD reach these massive LN2 clocks if they just happened to fall into the right hands.

Too bad Intel didn't offer cherry-picked parts up for sale, sans a warranty. It's obvious why they don't get into that business, though.